1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for inserting sliders successively onto a concealed slide fastener chain fed continuously, and also to a concealed slide-fastener finishing machine for applying top end stops to the fastener chain simultaneously with the insertion of the slider by the slider inserting-apparatus.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Although the slider inserting apparatus used exclusively for sliders for concealed slide fasteners are known, they are less in number than those used for sliders for general slide fasteners due to their structural complexity induced by the unique shape and configuration of the slider and fastener chain such as shown here in FIGS. 7 and 8. Particularly, as regards automatic slider inserting apparatuses of the so-called "forward insertion" type in which a concealed fastener chain is threaded in an engaged or coupled condition into the mouth of a slider and withdrawn from the opposite wider mouth of the slider in a disengaged or separated condition, it is rare to see a prior proposal other than one disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 3-40090.
The slider inserting apparatus disclosed in this Japanese publication includes a pull guide having a pull groove for receiving therein a pull of the slider. The pull guide is movable from a lower side of a fastener chain to an upper side through the gap between two fastener tapes at an element-free space portion, so as to receive the pull of the slider which has already been held by a pair of slider holders on the upper side of the fastener chain, with the pull suspended vertically downwardly. The pull guide and the slider holders are attached to a common frame so that when the pull guide is lowered, the slider holders concurrently move downwards, thus enabling the pull to move through the fastener chain from the other side to the one side without interference with the fastener tapes.
After passing through the slider inserting apparatus, the fastener chain moves into a top stop applying station in which the folded inner longitudinal edge portions of the fastener tapes each carrying thereon a row of coupling elements are unfolded by reversing them with a spreading plate, and while keeping this unfolded condition of the tape edges, top end stops are attached to the respective fastener tape by fusing each part of the coupling elements located adjacent to one end of the element-free portion, in such a manner as disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 59-33364. The fastener chain is then cut into individual product lengths to produce finished concealed slide fasteners in succession.
The slider inserting apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 64-40090 has many movable parts or members vertically reciprocated by cylinder actuators, such as a rod member vertically reciprocated by a cylinder actuator for releasing a locking pawl of the slider from the coupling elements, or a group of members driven by cylinder actuators to vertically reciprocate in a complicated timed manner to hold the slider. With this arrangement, the disclosed slider inserting apparatus is rendered complicated in construction and requires a laborious and time-consuming design work to construct a control program for controlling operation of the individual cylinder actuators.
As may be understood from what the aforesaid two Japanese publications disclose, the conventional slider inserting apparatus and the top stop applying apparatus are disposed apart from one another, and even when the slider inserting operation and the top stop applying operation are achieved continuously, two independently operable apparatus are employed. In the case of the concealed slide fasteners, the top stop application can only be achieved after the rows of coupling elements are reversed or overturned about the respective longitudinal tape edges by passing the fastener chain through a chain reversing apparatus used exclusively for the so-called "chain reversing" operation, as shown in Japanese Patent Publication No. 59-33364. Thus, regarding the top stop application, the fastener chain for the concealed slide fastener requires one additional processing step as compared with the general fastener chain. Furthermore, in the case of the continuous fastener chain, various processing operations require high positioning accuracy and must be performed effectively at element-free portions, so it has been almost impossible heretofore to achieve the slider inserting operation and the top stop applying operation on a single finishing machine.